


The Villain I Appear to Be

by Asmodee



Category: Marvel, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Romance, Slow Burn, hopefully, partner shenanigans, this is really just writing practice, you solve crime together i guess, you're also a former supervillian so big oof
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-23 03:30:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17675621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asmodee/pseuds/Asmodee
Summary: Through a weird misunderstanding, you find yourself working alongside Spider-Man in the everlasting fight against crime. The only problem is that you're one of the world's most notorious villains. Or so they say at least. You don't really remember much of that part of your life. In fact, you don't remember it at all.





	The Villain I Appear to Be

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure how much more I'll write for this, if at all? We'll see. Anyways, enjoy!
> 
> **_[The Villain I Appear to Be (Song)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZkZRzqYHrw) _ **

You swore your co-worker was out to get you. Why else would you be held at gunpoint at 2 AM in a grungy 7-Eleven that smelled like piss? Ok, maybe that was overstating it. It’s not like she was the one holding the gun, but still. Guilty through coincidence. This was easily turning out to be the worst night of your life, and possibly your last.

It all started with your sleazy manager Jake. It was a late night at the restaurant, like most nights, and Jake had draped himself across the bartop with an exaggerated sigh.

“Hey, Tinkerbell….” Jake said as if he were just starting a casual conversation. You knew better. “My last couple of tables were so rude, y’know? A table of 12 didn’t even tip, and my back has just been killing me. Not to mention that I promised my mom I’d take her out for breakfast in the morning.” He gave another sigh, louder this time.

Your mouth twitched into what you hoped was a polite smile, while you tried to ignore his uncomfortable nickname for you. “Ah, well, you know, I guess I could stay later to help clean-”

“Thanks, Tink!” Jake was already rushing over to the employee's room. “I really owe you one. Gold star for you.” He gave a wink and a thumbs up and was clocking himself out for the night.

You watched his disappearing form for a second, before dropping your head down with a groan. You were used to being the last to leave, though it didn’t help that most of your shifts were evenings. An hour more and you could leave.

As time passed and the last stragglers at the bar had left, you noticed one of your other co-workers hovering nervously around you. You think her name is Aimee. A new busser if you remember right.

“What’s up?” You ask her. She follows you as you both make your way to the back to clock out.

“Well, I haven’t been feeling too well, and I was wondering….” She absently picked at a hangnail, “I was wondering if you could come to the store with me to buy some aloe water.”

“I’m not buying you aloe water if that’s what you're asking.”

“N-no!” Aimee assured waving her hands, “I’ll get it myself. It’s just that it’s so late and I don’t want to walk there alone. And like I can’t wait until tomorrow so….”

And now here you were, waiting in a run-down 7-Eleven while Aimee heckled the cashier for aloe water. She was _sure_ they sold it here, and that the cashier must be hiding it in the back to spite her.

“I was here last week, I know you have it!”

“Listen, lady, I’m only the cashier….” You heard him mumble something about minimum wage. You didn’t think your minimum wage job was worth this experience either.

The door jingled as more customers entered the store, and you sighed. “Aimee, if the dude doesn’t have it, he doesn’t have it.” Frankly, you just didn’t want to be here anymore. You looked to give the cashier an apologetic smile when you noticed the guy’s face had gone stark white. You looked to Aimee and saw she held a similar frozen expression. That’s when you felt cold metal pressed to the back of your head.

“You press that panic button, pimple boy, and her face will be the first thing I blow off.”

Your stomach dropped as you realized what was happening.

“All of you,” A second raspy voice addressed, “Get your hand ups. If I see a phone I’ll personally see to it that this be your last night on earth. Now get us our damn money.”

You were debating ever giving favors to your co-workers again. Why the hell did Aimee even need aloe water? Looking at her trembling form, though, you realized she wasn’t the one to blame. Slowly, as the two of you were directed to lie on the floor, you took her hand in yours and gave a reassuring squeeze.

“Hey dumbass, go keep a lookout outside. We don’t want anyone interrupting our business.” Raspy voice guy instructed his partner. He then directed his attention back to the sweaty cashier.

Poor guy….

“Don’t worry,” Aimee whispered through a shaky smile, “We’ll be saved. You know how many superheroes there are in New York? _So_ many.” It was then that you realized she wasn’t trembling out of fear, but out of _excitement._ You didn’t want to know whether or not this was some kind of weird kink.

“I’m not sure we can-”

“Shutup!” The man yelled, aiming his gun at you now. You could feel the tears start to pool in your eyes. Your hands were shaking.

You really thought you were going to die. Was this how you went? Snuffed out on a grocery run for aloe water. If only you could find a way to distract the gunman, then maybe you could stop this robbery altogether? Maybe-

“Yo! Do you sell any churros here?!” A blur of red and blue burst through store doors and suddenly the gunman was knocked through the air. He slammed into a shelf behind you and a wave of boxes came crashing down around you. A white streak flew past your head not long after.

Your breath was caught in your throat, and you held a hand to your beating heart as you looked up at your savior. Your jaw went slack seeing the one and only spandex clad wall-crawler: Spider-Man.

“You two ladies alright?” His voice came muffled through his mask.

You looked behind you to see the gunman stuck to the shelf with a blanket of webbing. Looking back in front of you, you saw the boxes that had fallen on you had spilled their contents of…. aloe water. Huh.

“Ohmigosh!” Aimee jumped to her feet, running up to Spider-Man as if her life hadn’t just been in danger not even 10 seconds ago. “That was so, like, amazing! D-Do you think I could get an autograph?”

As Aimee gushed over a surprisingly awkward acting superhero, you tried to see if your shirt was salvageable. A few of the bottles had broken open, and you were currently sitting in a puddle of the damned aloe water.

You’d never look at an aloe plant the same way again after this night.

“Nice job, web guy.” You gave a delirious laugh, “What’d you do to the other guy?”

Spider-Man paused, “What other guy?”

The door jingled open as you realized the situation. It all seemed to happen so fast. Aimee still stood with Spider-man, both facing away from the door. The second gunman was already pulling his finger down on the trigger, and Spider-Man shoved Aimee out of the way as he turned to face the assailant. But he would be too late. He was going to get shot, he was going to-

“No!” You reached your hand out in a desperate attempt to do something, and to your surprise, something _did_ happen.

A bubble of water whipped past the hero in front of you, hitting the gunman square in the face with surprising force. He stumbled back, stunned, and it gave Spider-Man just enough time to disarm and knock out the guy.

You froze, arm still outstretched. Spider-Man looked back at you, those swept lenses holding an unusual amount of emotion. In this case: shock.

“Did you just….?”

“No! I mean, throw water? Yeah, yeah, of course! Haha, what else?” You gave a fake laugh, a too wide smile forced on your face. In reality, your thoughts were going a mile a minute. There was no way you moved that water on your own. There was no way you moved it without actually touching it because that would mean you were a-

“Holy shit!” Aimee squealed from the floor. She was rubbing her butt from the fall. “Spider-Man just totally saved me a second time!” To your relief, she didn’t seem to be reacting to your….incident. Which meant she probably didn’t see it.

“Ha, yeah, totally did!” Spider-Man gave quick laugh, “Hey, why don’t you go check on the cashier? It’d be a big help to me.”

“Oh, yeah, of course! Anything to help with sidekick duties.” She gave a wink before rushing to the overwhelmed boy behind the counter.

Suddenly, Spider-Man was pulling you off to the side with haste.

“You totally moved that water with your mind or something, right?” He was leaned in close, voice a whisper, and you shrunk back into yourself.

“What? Pshh, nah. What makes you say that?” You gulped.

Despite his lack of visible face, he gave an impressive deadpan look. “A few seconds ago you were soaked, and now you're completely dry. Plus, water doesn’t move like that if it’s thrown.”

Your stomach churned. Sure enough, when you looked down, your previously aloe water soiled clothes were all dried. “That’s not - that doesn’t mean anything. I’m not a mutant or anything.”

“What’s wrong with being a mutant?” The webbed hero crossed his arms.

Oh. Yikes. You hadn’t realized that he was probably a mutant himself. “Nothing!” You reassured with a wave of your arms. “It’s just - I’m just a normal person. I’m the kind of person destined to live an average life, you know?”

“But where’s the fun in average?” Spider-Man suddenly gave an excited hop. “Think about it, this is amazing! You’ve got powers, and you just helped me stop a robbery! Didn’t that feel good?”

“I guess, but I’m not-”

“Oh, Spider-Man!” Aimee suddenly cooed from across the store. “I think that’s the police I hear coming. They, like, don't like you very much, yeah?”

“Guess that’s my cue,” He gave a two finger salute before turning to leave, “Just think about it, alright? And maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Uh, yeah, _no-_ ”

But he was already gone. Out the door and thwipping himself out of sight. You groaned. Aimee shuffled to your side with a giddy smile and knocked your shoulder.

“Do you have any idea how lucky you are?” She squealed.

“What? W-what do you mean? I-” Did she actually see what happened after all? Was she going to tell everyone?

Aimee rolled her eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Spider-Man totally has the hots for you. Duh!”

You blanked. “...What?”

She tsked as if you were the naive one here. “Come on, even I could feel that chemistry! Why else would he pull you aside like that for a private conversation? And asking me to ‘help the cashier’?” She winked, “I know when to give two lovebirds their space.”

A nervous laugh escaped your mouth. “Oh - No, that wasn’t -”

“You gotta spill! Did he ask for your number? Omigosh, did he give you his? You totally gotta give me his number!”

This wasn’t how you were expecting your night to go. And you were still denying certain … _revelations_. It’s not like you hated mutants or anything, but superpowers came with an obvious amount of responsibility. Even Spider-Man seemed to be expecting you to use your powers to fight crime. You were just average - a nobody. You didn’t even have the courage to stand up to your manager, so how could you ever stand up to A-class supervillains?

Besides, it was probably just a trick of the eye. One little convenient store accident was hardly enough proof to assume you had powers.

You ended up walking Aimee home. You were already this far into this mess, what was another half hour?

Aimee stopped in front of an apartment complex and shuffled abashedly on the spot. “This is me,” She smiled up at you. “And, just, thank you. I know tonight was ca-ra-zy, but I’m glad you tagged along.” She leaned in for a hug, which you begrudgingly accepted.

“Hah, uh, no probs,” You gave a weak finger gun, and she laughed. You were glad the two of you were alright, but in all honesty, you just wanted this night to be over.

Aimee opened the door, and your eyebrows shot up at the little preview you saw of her apartment. The walls were covered with framed newsprints and pictures, all of them seeming to be on the subject of superheroes. It was Iron Man here, the X-Men there, and there was just _so much_. You found yourself drawn inside the apartment.

“Oh, hah, you like it?” Aimee smiled, stepping to the side to let you in. “It’s my collection. Anything and everything superhero related end up in my hands. Of course, only the best of the best stories get framed.”

You wanted to laugh. If Aimee wasn’t such a small and disarming girl, you’d be downright creeped out. You were about to comment on her obsession when a certain framed news article made your blood run cold. You froze at first. Then, slowly, you made your way to the article.

“What’s that?” You asked cautiously, your voice barely above a whisper.

“Oh, her? Yeah, she’s a real nasty one. I heard she got put in The Vault.”

Your head was reeling. There was no way, was there? But there it was - there _you_ were. At least you thought it was you. The woman in the picture wore a mask, but you see your face every morning when you wake up. You knew your own face, and more importantly, you knew that birthmark on your neck. The same one the woman in the picture had.

But it was impossible, right?

There, above the picture, stood a headline that read:

**_INFAMOUS BLOOD PUPPETEER ELICITS MASS SUICIDE: 57 DEAD_ **

 


End file.
